NEW DELHI: A meeting of opposition parties has been convened on April 15 to forge a common stand on govt’s proposed amendments to the women’s reservation law, with Congress Working Committee (CWC) on Friday deciding on a joint strategy for the “special session” of Parliament from April 16-18. The committee struck a strident note against the move to delink Census 2026 and delimitation from the quota measure, and also accused BJP of trying to sabotage the “caste census” and seeking to influence the Tamil Nadu and West Bengal elections by scheduling the Parliament sitting during the poll campaign period. It is anticipated that the opposition may move amendments to the govt proposal. CWC slammed govt for not sharing its proposed ame-ndments with the opposition a week before the special sitting. Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said govt was playing politics. Sachin Pilot is said to have argued that basing the “delimitation” on Census 2026 would help in carving out a sub-quota for OBC women. Manish Tewari and Mukul Wasnik are said to have argued that govt could not fix the strength in LS and assemblies, and then ask for delimitation. Some argued that Congress supported women’s reservation, but the order of the constitutional process of “census-delimitation-SC/ST/women’s quota” should be followed. Sonia Gandhi is learned to have cautioned that the party should not be seen to be opposing it.
